The bodycam footage shows a Houston Police officer fatally shooting an unarmed Black man after an altercation in a parking lot.
Douglas Sacha/Getty Images
Houston Chronicle
Michael Murney, Chron
The Houston Police Department has released video footage showing an officer shooting and killing an unarmed Black man after a confrontation in a parking lot last month.
On April 11 around 2:30 p.m., HPD officer K. Cummins approached what police say was a stolen Honda in the parking lot of a Family Dollar at 12375 Martin Luther King Boulevard. Footage from Cummins' body camera shows him pulling his squad car into the lot and approaching the vehicle with his gun already drawn.
Jamarr Van-Trell Thompson, 42, was sitting in the driver's seat. Cummins opened the driver's side door and told Thompson, "let me see your hands, don't move. Do not move. Do you understand?" Thompson starts to ask Cummins a question and Cummins cuts him off, shouting, "do not move, do you understand?"
Cummins ordered Thompson to step out, telling him he's being detained because he was in a stolen vehicle. The footage then appears to show Thompson putting the Honda in reverse, hitting Cummins' squad car, as Cummins continued to order him to stop. Donneka Abraham, a woman police say was a friend of Thompson's, appears on camera, asking the officer "what happened, sir?" while holding her hands in the air.
Thompson then started to exit the Honda with his hands up and Cummins grabbed him by the shirt collar. Both ended up on the ground.
The next minute or so of footage is partially obscured at various points as Cummins and Thompson struggled on the ground. Thompson can be heard shouting "get him off me, get him off me!" as Cummins continues to order him to stop. The woman can be seen trying to give Cummins his taser after it came loose during the struggle, repeatedly shouting, "here, sir! Here, sir!" Cummins eventually orders the woman to hand him his taser while the two men were still fighting on the ground. After about a minute of struggling on the ground, footage shows Cummins drew his gun and fired.
Additional HPD officers arrived on the scene and started performing CPR on Thompson until paramedics arrived. Thompson then was taken to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Abraham, 35, was later detained and charged with interfering with public duties, per Fox 26's Ronnie Marley. HPD's investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.
"It is important to note that we are in the very early stages of the investigation, and we continue to review additional evidence as it is collected and analyzed," HPD assistant chief Jessica Anderson said in a taped statement added to the released footage. HPD didn't immediately respond to Chron's request for additional comment.